Yes it's all watercooled, barring the PSU. CPU, GPU and Northbridge all have watercooling blocks. I route that lot through some little manifolds into a converted heatermatrix which I ripped out of an old Ford Transit in a breakers (copper and brass unit).

System works really well, keeps my computer very cool and it is quiet.

I made all the bits except for the pump and matrix, and used scrap copper pipe and brass fittings from when I plumbed in my central heating system.

I suppose it's all a bit 'Ghetto' but it works well, and the whole thing cost me under 20 quid.

If you have the swing on your lathe (I have an old Harrison lathe with an 11" swing, so I'm spoilt), then mounting disks for turning on a lathe isn't difficult.

You can use a mandrel as you already suggested. This okay if you can live with having a hole in the middle of the disk, often this can be used for motor shaft exit/stuffing box, and at the front a schraeder valve fitting.

However, if you don't want any holes in your disk, what to do?

Well I machined up two small plastic ends from some PVC bar stock. One is centre drilled to mount on a rotating centre, the other sits in the lathes chuck.

Both of these pieces have some wet and dry superglued onto the faces, this provides friction. I then rough cut out a disk on the bandsaw, and 'clamp' it in between the bar mounted in the chuck and the bar mounted in rotating centre mounted on the tailstock.

Clear plastics, like acrylic and polycarbonate tend to come with a peel off protection wrapper, I leave this on to avoid it getting scuff marks from the abrasive.

If the plastic has no protective coating, you can use some parcel tape or some other type of wide self-adhesive tape.

Another option is to stick the disc to a mandrel using double sided sticky tape, the type carpet fitters use.

Oh and take light cuts, as the work isn't as securely held as it would be on a chuck or mandrel.

Sub culture wrote:Oh and take light cuts, as the work isn't as securely held as it would be on a chuck or mandrel.

Andy

I was going to say... clamped between the chuck and centre by friction - isn't it possible for the machined piece to fly right out..at great speed! I can tell you're the kind of man likes living on the edge.

It's only friction that keeps the work in a chuck anyhow, when you think about it.

I got the Harrison lathe from my first place of work, where I was undertaking an engineering apprenticeship.

It had been decommisioned, and I got it for fifty quid after twisting the maintenance managers arm. The firm was effectively insolvent anyway, and they were relocating part of the company to Rugby- I left soon after.

There was a bit of wear in the machine, mostly in the cross slide, but we managed to take most of this up, as the machine has a lot of adjustment options.

Just another suggestion, don't forget the use of a faceplate. You can stick, clamp or screw the plastic disk to it. Put a piece of plywood etc between the part and the faceplate to avoid machining the faceplate!)

(I may have a got a little confused and you may be using this already- is that what you are meaning by the term mandrel, perhaps.)

That sounds good. I have only recently aquired a Peathol lathe and I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing with it . I can remember the little bit I learnt at school ages ago. But it wasn't much. I read a small introduction book which explained about faceplates and they sound very usefull. I would like to get one for mine at some point.

What I meant by mandrel is a stout tube with internal thread which is held in the chuck, and a bolt which passes through the centre of the work and then screws into the tube thereby clamping the work in. - Like a larger version of what holds cutting discs in a dremmel.

Unfortunately I just missed the model engineering show, although the model boat show is coming up. But so far my shopping list is; riser blocks for more clearance (is that called swing?), live centre, and faceplate.

btw - I just tried drilling a 2mm hole in brass rod on my lathe. I got about 8mm in and then the (brand new) drill bit started binding and finally snapped inside the work. I thought brass was supposed to machine easily. What did I do wrong